Doing daily push ups at work, that’s right…I said AT WORK, with my coworkers got me thinking about how to get the most benefit from doing just one set of push ups.

I thought about weight lifting. When doing bench press for example, you would ideally have someone spot you so you can do a couple of extra reps to burn out your muscles. If it works with weight lifting, why not with push ups?

Cue idea: so 2 minutes of push ups, instead of just one set! For the past week, we’ve been doing 2 minutes of push ups, taking breaks when necessary, but trying to get the most push ups in during that time. And I’ve gotta say that it works fantastically! Those extra 10-15 push ups really do their job of burning out the muscles.

Doing one set is like doing 90% of the work. Doing an extra 10-15 push ups shortly afterwards is doing 10% more work to get you 50% more benefit.

To step it up to expert, you would do the same 2 minute set on handles. Now you’re feeling the burn!

Try it out next time you only have time for one set. Do 2 minutes instead!